Monday, March 3, 2008

In these days of high-tech research, amateur genealogists sometimes neglect to use one of their most valuable resources -- the library. This includes both the local facility, and also the libraries that are often available in conjunction with a historic or genealogical society.

In most cases, where the ancestor you are seeking lived, is where you should be locating the nearest historical society. Many of these small libraries are just now creating web sites in order to promote their valuable archives. Most do not have their data online.

If their web site has an email address, try writing to see if they will perform research for you. Some charge up front by the hour, and others offer it freely (one historical society send me a huge packet of information on my family, free of charge. Of course I sent them a donation that more than adequately covered the postage).

A Google search, or a USGenWeb site should help you locate these facilities.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

If you are a New Jersey resident with a local library card, and you own a home computer, you can access HeritageQuest (its online history books and U.S. Census records) from home.

This is good news for genealogy researchers.

The New Jersey State Library is now making HeritageQuest available for FREE to all New Jersey residents with a library card.

For those not familiar with HeritageQuest, it is a service that provides historical books online (family histories, town histories, etc.) and also access to the United States Census records (1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 (partial)